The Former and Current Chairs of Mastercard on Executing a Strategic CEO Succession

As the chairman of a publicly traded multinational corporation, it’s difficult to contemplate replacing a charismatic, visionary CEO who tripled your organization’s revenue, increased its net income sixfold, and grew the company from $30 billion in market capitalization to $300 billion during his 10-year tenure. As a chief executive, it’s perhaps even harder to think about how to replace yourself with someone who you believe will do the job better than you could over the next decade. But Mastercard found a way to approach its most recent CEO transition thoughtfully and systematically by sticking to several rules: It cast a wide net, considering more than 40 internal employees and a handful of standout externals. It committed to inclusivity in decision-making, asking the entire board to participate. It insisted on solving for tomorrow’s problems, not today’s, in clarifying what type of new leader was needed. It focused on developing and retaining all its current and future stars—not just filling the top job. Finally, the authors pledged to keep their minds open and their personal opinions to themselves—while discouraging early preferences and groupthink among the directors—until one final candid and decisive debate.